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Morning all. I'm afraid I have nothing new to report. However, here is an old Norman Lockhart image by way of a reminder. Rob.

Collecting my models from Geoff Haynes yesterday was like Christmases and birthdays all rolled into one.......................... The Hornby Thompson Pacifics were shown yesterday. I built this A4 from a South Eastern Finecast kit, and Geoff has painted it beautifully. He also painted this Model Loco Stanier Five. I bought this part-built some time ago, for a song. Everything was glued together on it - even the frames and the etched components. It picked apart easily, and I just rebuilt/completed it using the proper medium - solder! I built and painted this new Nu-Cast J6 and Geoff weathered it for me. This is the old Nu-Cast V2 given to me by Jesse Sim. I repainted it into BR lined black (losing the hideous LNER green), and Geoff lined the valance and weathered it. It still has its Stone Age cast metal chassis. I have all the Markits/Comet/DJH parts to erect a new mechanism for it. I tell you, this bartering is a damn good idea!

It looks like we are going to be caught up the moving nightmare. SWMBO had a stroke a few years ago. Her mobility and coordination have been gradually failing. She is currently in hospital following her latest fall at home and the family doubt that she will be able to safely use the stairs once she gets back. A stair lift isn't going to work as it would be too risky for her to board/alight the thing at the top of the stairs. An estate agent is visiting early next week to give an estimate. We are looking to move outside the London commuter zone so hopefully the regional variation will allow for the purchase and cover the costs of moving plus any alterations (I can see that a wet room may be on the cards). It is going to stop any work on the layout and probably result in the demise of the tropical marine tank. All in all, a real pain!

I haven't been on here much lately, but have been busy as there are many things I can do behind the scenes. The reason I've had to suspend trading is due to lack of gears. The company who run my gear mould tools have had problems with them since the start, but the last batch of gears were just not up to scratch so the tool is now being modified. All previous gears have been fine but they've had to jump through hoops to get the quality spot on so with the mods in place the tools should run faster and more consistently. This work on the tool is not happening quickly due to the obvious difficult circumstances that exist today. I did have a batch of gears ready to take me over the modification period but had to reject them. I ordered these before Christmas but the moulding company are also having a difficult a time, as are most of my suppliers. As gearboxes make up the bulk of our sales it wasn't possible exist on the revenue from the other lines and so I applied for furlough. As I mentioned, due to the rules, I;m not allowed to do things directly related to taking revenue. I'm afraid I had little choice but once i have the gears I'll be back up and running. I am sorry as I know the lack of gearboxes may be holding your own projects up, and I will update you as soon as I can give you some reliable information. I'm going to have another go at the moulders next week... Incidentally, technically, I work for High level Kits Ltd.

Some photos over the years around Ulgham Lane crossing for this afternoon. All but the first photo are taken showing much the same length of track, even over three and a half years the vegetation changes. Ulgham Lane crossing 143007 Berwick to Newcastle 7th May 88 C9452.jpg Ulgham Lane crossing 56132 empties to Butterwell Jan 92 J12983.jpg Ulgham Lane crossing 60074 down Nov 92 J13577.jpg Ulgham Lane crossing 91007 up 22nd May 93 C18551.jpg Ulgham Lane crossing 90023 Kings X to Edinburgh 1st July 95 C20315.jpg David

Greetings one and all, and generic best wishes etc as appropriate....... Apols etc for not being around but a certain IPad has become so clunky now as far as the 'net goes that I hardly bother with it at all. Hopefully I can get sorted next week when I am off and hopefully certain stores will have stock in (where are they all going I wonder?). Dont mention earwax as a trip to Floriday resulted in a visit to the ER, to be seen by a nurse who slapped me on the back and asked me to call him 'Mitch'. All very efficient and I was in and out, having had a blob of wax removed in under 10 mins, start to finish. Then led into (what I later realised was a secure room) and lady clerk is typing away and asks me will I pay cash, for a 50% discount......Yes of course I will. Okay hunny (you dont get that on the NHS!) that will be seven fifty. Now having only been in the hospital for about 15 mins, including her time, had a nurse look at my ear, remove wax in under a minute etc I hand over a $10 note. Ohhhhhh you English and your humor......... thats $750 !!!!!!!!!!!! Mrs BR said it was the only time she has truly seem me speechless. I was kept locked up (basically) till the insurance sorted things about an hour and a bit later. Three cheers for the NHS!!!! The bill included things like weighing me, taking my pulse, temperature, height and weight, use of the bed, linen etc etc etc!!!!

8485 is now right for work but it has gone into storage until we start running the Branch passenger trains, when it will take up its role as Porthmellyn Road station pilot. This afternoon, with our next running session two weeks away, I decided to erect the St Enodoc Down end baseboard. I won't have time to lay any track on it before the session but it will give the team an idea of what to look forward to. Here it is, looking in the Up direction. I added a small fillet to the nearer edge of the board to give a decent width outside the single line. This should protect lineside furniture such as signals from accidental damage and also reduce the risk of derailed vehicles falling to the floor when Jesse isn't around to catch them. The curved edge corresponds to that at Porthmellyn Road to give a clear 600mm-wide gangway, while the sticky-out bit (technical term) at top right is to support the future overbridge. The main joist here, as you can see, is in two parts, giving a total length of 1500mm. This is because I have quite a lot of 1200mm long pieces of timber recovered from the old St Enodoc layout legs that I can re-use. This joist lies on the centre line of the two curved tracks and is 1700mm from the wall with the access door. I can therefore use this as a datum for setting out the rest of the curves. I still need to add two more joists and their risers to prevent this baseboard sagging. It looks as though the new board will, although I shouldn't encourage it, give the drivers somewhere to put down their throttles and clipboards. I also know that some folk here will also be pleased to see the Hornby-Dublo buffer stops in temporary action again. Tomorrow Richard the Cave Man is hosting our BRMA Sydney area meeting. It will be good to see how his layout has progressed in the last couple of years. As long as we don't get a lot of rain beforehand, which might flood the cave, we should have a good time.

Well I never he's picked up the crane..... (not literally of course this is just a figure of speech!)

The issue is she is likely to fall off the seat trying to get onto it. This happened to our next door neighbour who then fell down the full flight of stairs. The ensuing injuries saw a one way trip to hospital.

It happened here about 1989/90. Prices rose by stupid numbers after we moved here in 1987; so much so that my neighbour paid 50% more than I did, for a more or less identical house 2 years later. And then came a recession, and prices plummeted. Unfortunately, I was maxing my mortgage in order to afford this property so could not afford a repayment mortgage. In fact I had to take out a low-cost endowment which was rather a con, as it relied on endowment policies to exceed their guaranteed payout - as was happening to many people at the time. However, it was the only way I was going to afford the house I wanted. All was going well until the dotcom bubble burst about 10 years later, and insurance companies took fright and slashed their payout percentages. In the end I had to make up the difference myself when the 25 years was up.

Good morning all Cloudy and grey in W. London this morning but we're supposed to be getting sunny intervals. VAT return this morning I think. It looks like the landlord who has apparently turned about 200 houses round here into bedsits- including the other half of my semi- is sniffing around another house nearby that's up for sale. This is a bit of a racket as they gut a perfectly ordinary suburban semi then shove on an extension which doesn't require planning permission, and turn it into six "studio" flats with a couple of kitchens between them that also doesn't need planning. They then take in half a dozen people on housing benefit- throw in the electricity and any other costs- all LED lighting- then charge them the maximum that housing benefit will pay which is far more than they could get from a tenant paying their own way. It works for the tenants and the landlord gets about £1000 a month from each room so it's very lucrative but it's our taxes that are paying for this and the council, who could act to limit the number of "HMOs" in an area are doing nothing. I have nothing against the ternants, they need somewhere to live, but the very ordinary suburban estate that my neighbours and I have lived in for thirty years or more is started to be blighted as have others nearby. My previous neighbour ,who was renting the house next door, wanted to buy it but was outbid by this person. The building work was decidely dodgy - though it must have passed some kind of inspection- so I did some checking and found that the owner of the building firm that did the conversion has been disqualified as a director for multiple breaches of H&S. but just put in a nominee director and it was still him the sub-contractors were dealing with. His workers are eastern european and hardly speak English so I doubt if their employment conditions would pass muster. In 2019 I never saw any of them wearing a hard hat The houses they've converted all seem to be owned by separate companies so it's very hard to find out who is really behind this.

Norman Lockhart's image of an ex-L&SWR Brake van at Bleat Wharf.

Greetings one and all I rather liked Flavio’s references to “Mad dogs and Englishmen” this morning and the stocks yesterday. Subjecting a criminal to public humiliation could well be much more unpleasant for the miscreant than prison and would be much less of a burden on the public purse, as well as fun for anyone who finds him/herself with a sudden glut of over-ripe tomatoes. As it happens, the local rag has more details of the recent trial of the person who made me a victim. He was found guilty of one charge of blackmail, two of fraud, one of burglary from a church and four of theft. He managed to steal £12,000 from just one victim so I reckon I was jolly lucky to be taken for only £20. Among other things the judge said that these offences are particularly despicable. The only downside of his incarceration for 54 months is that he will be out again in 27. Will he learn his lesson at Her Majesty’s pleasure? Somehow I doubt it? Would I feel better for contributing to his public ridicule? You bet! Here in Bedford there is but one election next week, that of a new Police and Crime Commissioner. The candidates are an unremarkable bunch and the name of only one of them is known to me. In my view this is not a post that should be seen as political and I have no incentive for supporting any of the nonentities laid before us. I am not even sure that any of the candidates is bad enough to be worth voting against. It speaks volumes that no previous candidate has stood again. Tomorrow is May Day and I am due to meet friends for breakfast at 5.30 am. Once again there is unlikely to be morris dancing for me to watch and an open pub in which to have solid and liquid breakfast but the May Day collective is nothing if not ingenious. I hope that gentle readers will forgive me for not posting tomorrow but I will be back on Sunday. Best wishes to all! Chris

Ey up! Successful day so far including a wine delivery. Bad news.. planning approval was granted as "no objectios received".. copies of my objections plus the council response to say they have had them sent to local councillors and the boss of planning.. what a joke! Waiting for next door to seek permission to come over the boundary to lay foundations.. the answer is .. show us the colour of your money.. Baz

Greetings all from Sidcup where it is sunny and bright albeit with a few clouds in the sky. Mrs Lurker developed a nasty ear infection many years ago, as it happens it was at the same time as she had her leg in plaster having dislocated her knee. The local hospital (KCH) decided the infection should be lanced but at the last minute decided she should be sent to specialists (which I think were at Guys). Good job because it turned out that had they lanced the infection it would have pushed infection directly into her bloodstream with a good chance of seeing her off. She was diagnosed with something I forget the name of but is one step down from mastoids. Work is busy but my boss has announced that it his intention to try to knock off early for the bank holiday weekend. I am hoping that flows down to me too although there is every possibility that the people who want to hassle him decide that as he is (unusually) unavailable they will hassle me instead! Yesterday saw the successful Thursday purchase of LDC and Autosport. No doubt this evening i will have to have an extensive debrief on the Formula 1 FP1 and FP2 with Younger Lurker, as well as speculate on the Indycar Texas double-header. Who knew?

Snap. Exactly what happened to our next door neighbour's place. In this case dodgy Oriental owners with workers being illegally billeted in the garage. Well until Border Force pressed the issue with the council after said useless p***ks couldn't be arsed to initially enforce the rules. They can get away with dodgy works by hiring a private building control company and skipping the party wall notification to suppress opposition. Once this happens the council has lost all ability to enforce building regulations. The only way is via CICAR as the private company won't even talk to anyone but their client. Any party wall damage to surrounding properties has to be through civil court.

Newly oushopped 60054 is now standing at Platform 3, and I'm still trying to get some decent images from this side, as there are less obstructions between camera and train. The only real answer, I think, is thicker blinds to keep the glare out, but I will carry on experimenting.

Good Morning All, Up early (as seems to be the norm as of late) due to a (biological) systems malfunction. Still, mustn’t grumble - the alternative is pushing up the daisies. Lucy is doing well, her eye is pretty much normalised and whilst still not happy about the treatment (ointment to both eyes) she seems resigned to it in a “I’ll put up with it if I have to, but there’d better be sausage” kind of way. Returning to house heating (and cooling), somebody mentioned a heating fixture in the bathroom ceiling. My great aunt had a two bulb lighting fixture in her bathroom - one was for illumination and the other (infra-red???) for heating. I dimly recall there being two switches - one for light, the other for heat. I also dimly recall that on bath nights (remember those? You bathed once a week) the bath would be run, the heating turned on and the door closed. Then when ready to bathe, you went into a bathroom and were enveloped in warm steam (yes, yes, I know that it’s warm water vapour, but let’s not get pedantic here). A rubber duck may or may not have been involved... Whilst it is certainly true that air-con has made much of the US inhabitable, we shouldn’t overlook how AC has pushed much of the world into a western (basically Northern European) way of living. Thanks to AC we no longer have siestas or other afternoon naps and centuries old rhythms of living are increasingly vanishing. Whilst the famous song “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” may mock the “dress for dinner in the tropics” Brit (definitely a vanished species), I think it also highlights another, possibly better (???) rhythm of life: Mad dogs and Englishmen Go out in the midday sun. The smallest Malay rabbit Deplores this foolish habit. In Hongkong They strike a gong And fire off a noonday gun To reprimand each inmate Who's in late. In the mangrove swamps Where the python romps There is peace from twelve till two. Even caribous Lie around and snooze; For there's nothing else to do. In Bengal To move at all Is seldom, if ever done. But mad dogs and Englishmen Go out in the midday sun (for all the words: https://www.lyrics.com/lyric/17462633/Noël+Coward/Mad+Dogs+and+Englishmen) And on that noontime note I bid you an enjoyable POETS day. iD

Isn’t working quite like that in the Vancouver area just now, Andrew. Houses are already priced at ridiculous levels and are going at over the asking price. Once an offer is accepted, yes, that’s it. But before that, there are “nods and winks” between the buying and selling agents to let people know their existing bids are too low, but not by how much. Which means that often a bidding war develops where an existing winning bid could/should have been accepted. Our son and his wife are in the middle of trying to buy a house and are getting really p’ed off.

It is a situation one might expect to be covered by mortgage insurance but when I tried to claim on those grounds I was told that the insurance didn't cover redundancy (very crafty). But things then got ridiculous as I was asked if I'd had any time off sick and I replied that I had - several months in fact the previous year but I was on full pay so it presumably didn't apply. 'Oh yes it did' I was told, and was asked to provide documentary evidence to support the claim I would be making!, So in accordance with what sounded like total nonsense I get a letter from my GP to explain how long I'd been off sick and what with (a collapsed lung then adult onset epilepsy which had taken several months to get under control with drugs) and I duly sent off the claim but pointed out that I had not lost any pay as a result of my sickness absence from work. The insurance duly paid out sufficient cash to totally cover the several months of mortgage payments which had in fact been paid as normal. Absolutely barmy when you think about it but it paid for a decent winter holiday in Portugal for the four of us. So who was I to question their strange ideas of unnecessarily giving away money - especially as they weren't coughing up to cover an actual loss of income instead of no loss of income. On a nice bright note having had my birthday lunch there cancelled due to locking down I have just booked Mrs Stationmaster's for next week at The Crooked Billet http://thecrookedbillet.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/26th-April-A-la-Carte.pdf

Sorry to hear this. Have you considered looking into one of those newer style vertical lifts? It may be an option to the upheaval and stress of moving. In the 13 years we've been here our house has slightly more than doubled in value. The major refurb 3 years ago paid for itself before the paint had dried. Bas, I'd be going to the local media as well (if such a thing still exists) to let them know their council is ignoring objections by saying none received. I'd also be telling the property owner to go f*ck himself as far as access is concerned. Maintenance, yes they can negotiate access but not for new construction, especially if it requires alteration to fencing, walls, or existing infrastructure/garden. Make the b*stard do all the work from within his own property boundary. I'm rather vindictive that way.

' morning all from red dragon land. Cloudy, soft sunshine. Garden temp. 6C. The house I grew up in, was an open coal (later coke) fired (lit from a gas pipe) centrally heated house with radiators in kitchen, bathroom and two double bedrooms. The box room relied on a convection heater down in the hallway in much later years when the open fire was replaced by various electric fires. I remember a paraffin heater in the kitchen and, later, the gas oven being on, when the fire was out. So, if you wonder why I enjoy firing up (and driving) steam locos, I blame it all on those early years spent cleaning out, building and lighting our home fires. My Nan taught me how to make a coal fire before I was seven and I always kept my Gran's hearth clean when she had a fire going when we visited. She had a small fireside companion set just suitable for a growing child's hands! I guess I stood no chance when it comes to steam engines. I am tempted to have a look at the straggly shrubs this afternoon and tidy them up. I might wander down before lunch and have a preview! Maybe take a mugadecafcoffi with me and enjoy a bit of sunshine. Fitt and Elfie a bit sluggish this week so they have orders to buck up! Take care and play safe. Hope recent playtime and diy injuries, aches and pains recover soon. _________ Best wishes Polly

Well, I'm half Scottish, but we wore boiler suits (white = officer) with long sleeves as compulsory as it is too easy to burn yourself on something, and ships enginerooms are full of hot somethings! Just underwear underneath although some of the older guys wore a vest to soak up sweat - I presume that's what you mean by a singlet. No oil or grease for long, as we were aware of the risks by then. It is often necessary to get very covered in it when working inside the engine (see below) but we cleaned off very soon afterwards. I was a skinny as a rake back in those days, although 'somewhat' better padded nowadays - rippling torsos would never have been applied to my physique in any of my 62 years for sure

There are always ways around a system. Bidding wars prior to a formal offer are old school but at least once there is a formal offer and acceptance it is rare for any other hanky panky to happen. Not like the UK where the lady we bought this place from had her chain collapse 3 times because someone further up decided they wanted more £££ or one who kept changing their mind on whether or not they wanted to actually move. In the end ours came down to the last possible minute as one old rat bag kept dithering. 3 hours later and our mortgage offer would have expired and we'd have pulled out. 4 1/2 bloody months of farquing about. Good moaning all. TFIF and all that. Bank holiday weekend approaches, as does the rain. <sigh> Little of note otherwise so I'll just bid you all a good weekend.

I like the bricked up window on the van.

Morning, a sunny but chilly one again, 6c feels like 3 according to the techno-weathero-phono thing. Ear problems at sea as an engineer are common, a working environment often over 50c, constant wearing of ear defenders at least 8 hours a day, then escape into air conditioned accommodation. Sharing space in a metal box with a 30,000hp diesel engine is an unpleasantly hot experience! When 'up the gulf' with intake air being possibly 40c, I have no idea what the engineroom temperatures got to as the thermometers didn't go that high. Modern ships have air conditioned control rooms as the electronics need to be cooler, otherwise they wouldn't bother for the engineers. There were still manually controlled ships around when I was at sea, you just had to tough it, there were no cool spaces to retreat into.

No, he's not lost! Still heading down siding

Good moaning from a cool and cloudy Charente. We had an odd day yesterday. Up with the flatulent sparrows, their hotel is on the pylon in the garden. Then off to The Danglies with the cars, drop Beth's then come home. Aftervlunch, eyelid inspection interrupted by the garage rining to say that the car needed a new battery. Thecplan was then to set off to pick up the carcat 5.30 and get fish and chips on the way home. No such luck, another phone call from the garage"The test centre have lost your car key and we can't get it back from there". You couldn't believe it. Anyway I was dispatched to The Danglies, 24 miles to the garage, with the spare key. The story continued. Apparently the CT centre had managed to give theckey to another custoner who must have taken it home. I was not at all amused and told them that if the keys, which inclyded our house key, were lost, that at the very least I would expect, reprogrammed locks and new keys for the car, and a new lock and keys for the house, plus a reduced bill. They agreed to that request but 5 minutes later told me that the keys were en route back to the CT centre. I told them we'd pick the car up today and got the fish and chips on the way home. We now await a phone call to say that the car is ready. What we can't work out is how the 'customer' ended up with the key. We both presume that the tester had left them in the other clients car. Anyway the day remains to be seized. Beth is waiting for sister drac to appear and I'm then taking her to a friends. I wil need to stay in to listen for the phone. Hope you all have a good day/night (delete as appropriate) and hope to hear good news about BoD and Mr Hunt Senior. Jamie

Here are a couple of photos, taken in natural daylight on the bench top in the laundry room. You can just see where I had to black out the Bachmann plate, although if I hadn't told you I wonder whether you'd have noticed? The Truro shed plate is lovely. This close-up rather betrays the quality of the rest of my work though...

Good evening everyone Like yesterday, the weather has been a little bit mixed. This morning’s sunshine turned to dull about 11 o’clock. We then had a few light showers before the sun came out again. Then whilst we were eating dinner, it started to rain again! Despite that, I’ve had another productive day in the garden today. The water butt was emptied, the last 12” were dumped as it was quite silty and murky. The but then had a thorough clean, before being re-sited and then re-filled, it’s currently about 80% full at the moment. I then dismantled and removed the old plinth (basically a pile of bricks with a paving stone on the top) that the water butt was sat on. Removed a couple of paving stones and then put the composter in position. I don’t intend to make garden compost, instead I’ll be making leaf mould, as we get lots of leaves falling from the trees that edge the school playing field that backs onto our house. Once all that was done, I did a couple more trips to the skip to put the last of the old paving in. Just before I put the last few items in the skip, I contacted the skip company, telling them that it’s now ready for collection, they will pick it up sometime tomorrow. Like yesterday I took a rest in the afternoon, a bit of eyelid inspection, doing a couple of sudoku puzzles and also reading the latest copy of BRM. Disappointingly, our winter break in Harrogate has had to be cancelled, as the B&B owners have sold up and the new owners of house will no longer be running it as a B&B. We could of course look for alternative accommodation, but the friends that we normally meet there had already decided to give it a miss this year, so Sheila has decided to do the same also, oh well!

Just going to Park this here courtesy of our security guard.

@iL Dottore yes we would call that a vest - and I had skinny arms like that, they did once have muscles, but no more. @polybear What about this one then - the biggest, currently. A bottom end bolt snapped on the test bed at full power, each cylinder of these makes a smidge (a metric unit) over 7,000 hp. Bet it made a bang. They make these up to 14 cylinders, 100,000 hp, used in those big container ships. For scale you need to look for the little mannie in blue by no1 cylinder head, or the one down at the crankshaft level left of centre. We bought our first house in 84, £25k. Sold it 18 years later for £105k, but that only bought half a house here! The price difference between northern England and Fraggle Rock was a shock.

Afternoon all. Friday has been safely reached. The computer wants to update (to something called Big Sur) so I am mistyping on the tiny screen which is not compatible with the large Gwiweral fingers. We each received a “Postal Poll Card” today - buff instead of white and clearly indicating where and when to vote along with the advice that we are not permitted to vote in person. You wonder why they bother. If political parties included “Dominos Pizza” then their persistent (daily) delivery of junk mail would outstrip that of all the other candidates put together. We still get the junk because it’s delivered by Royal Mail rather than local yoof meaning they are duty bound to deliver it despite the “No Junk Mail” sticker on the letterbox. I am promised a delivery from Camborne tomorrow though don’t know what’s in this one. Maybe a long-ago placed pre-order for something finally in stock. I must away before the Coming of the Great Awl.

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Chris mentioning mayoral elections reminded me that although I live just outside of London and can't vote for the London mayor we still get inundated with news and interviews of the candidates. One in particular stands out for sheer stupidity, he wants to stop all covid restrictions and to quote "Go back to normal". What a pi1lock. Arthur Itis was again in full song but the Ibuforen soon quietened him down. I'm beginning to notice another effect of the Ibuforen, I needn't worry about constipation. Postie has just delivered my postal vote so alls well in that department, it will be in the post later today.

Another day accomplished, without a lot to show for it, but the Sun is out at the moment but we have rain due at about 3pm. I have / DID HAVE, some woodwork to treat outside, but I don't think there will be enough Sun and warmth to dry it before the rain arrives so that's another job to put off for another day, or two, or three, or four, = you get the picture, I HATE DIY. And so today will be a build up to the weekend and as its a Bank Holiday I have a day off on Monday as well, so that's a bonus. Have a good day one and all, stay safe and well, AND if doing any DIY then don't over do it, or the other half will think you enjoy it.

Hey up, 4589 now heading down yard siding? Toad still on main though so not going back straight away! Interesting, I shall have to carry on watching this to see what happens!!!

Still got one of those and it's needed, even though there is a small radiator in the room. The bathroom isn't single brick walls as in 9 inches thick, but single brick as in 3 inches thick. the flat roof has no insulation in it either.. It also sticks out from the house being mounted on top of the entrance way at the back of the house.. The rebuild of the bath room is a early retirement project, flat roof off insulation in , new flat roof to be fitted. The main side wall (from ground level) to have an additional skin fitted outside with insulation in the cavity..

Before we set off on a journey today, I reset the trip counter. Amongst other things, this re-initializes the average fuel usage calculation. Before I reset it, it was at 9.7 litres per 100 km (we’ve only been driving short distances in and around the city for the last several months). This morning, with a well-loaded car, cold engine and a steep hill to start, the first re-calculated figure shown was 34.6 litres per 100 km! It did get down to 5.6 later in the journey.

Doctors aren't at all keen about doing ear syringe jobs niowadays, seemingly th it often caused more problems than it solved. The recommended treatment for bunged up ears and lots of wax is a d-i-y treatment get your head lying down one one side and an application of olive oil in the ear that's now on top in order to loosen and dislodge what is in there. works quite well actually.

It’s the late 1970s and a class 25 departs Hillport Goods with a return trip working.

Our first house we had bought for £60,000 within a couple of years the Mirror image house the other end of the street, sold for.....£28,000. Luckily by the time we came to sell 10 years later it was back to £60,000. It was beans and chips for a long time in the middle though, 15.5% interest rates etc. That would frighten todays home buyers.. As for the economy, yes I think it's in for a Big crash, House prices are soaring, idiots are buying vapour ware aka Bitcoin and the like. I keep thinking of Tulip mania , The South Sea bubble, Railway mania, 1920s great depression with private buyers buying shares like today...

When I got back from the Trafford Centre, the skip lorry was here, picking up the skip. So I waited a few yards away until he'd finished and after he'd passed me, I drove the car back onto the drive. The price of houses around here is absolutely staggering, but they've always been high. When we bought our house 41 years ago, we could just about afford our mortgage when we bought. Due to personal links that Sheila had via work (she worked for an estate agent) we were able to get quite a good rate for the solicitor. However, as the interest rates kept rising, I had to work as much overtime as I could get and we still had to tighten our belts. At one point I even got rid of the car and got a push bike just to save money. Luckily I only worked 3 miles away and occasionally a neighbour gave me a lift during the winters. Despite being on a very good salary when I retired, given the current price of our house, I wouldn't have been able to get a mortgage. I really feel for the young who are trying to buy at the moment.

That happened about 1988, just after I moved into this house. Fortunately I paid the same for this place as I got for my previous house so I just transferred the existing mortgage over. The only thing was it was an endowment mortgage so to be on the safe side I swapped it over to a repayment mortgage and as it turned out that was a good move. No negative equity but it came close at times.

Morning, suns out but still flippin' cold wind, a fair amount of the "G" word has already taken place in the greenhouse, we are off to Montrose to deliver a birthday gift and some tomato plants then the day is ours, might go into the local Glen looking for Adders as I still need a decent picture of a male for a Scottish magazine. Take care all and keep safe.

Dry and sunny here in North Somerset, although the clouds are beginning to go vertical. I have had ear wax problems and also find Otex to be a great way of loosening the hardened variety. I remember having my ears syringed when I was in my 20s, and some rather un-nerving lumps of dark brown stuff emerged. It was only when I walked out into the street from the GP surgery that the noises hit me. The traffic sounds were so loud and far more complex noises than I had gotten used to. It was quite an un-nerving experience at first, to realise what I had not been able to hear a short while earlier. I now have tinnitus, which is like the worst continuous musical chord ever produced; but I have got used to it and only notice when I think about it. I blame loud music in the past, especially live concerts, and listening to albums on headphones with the volume on 12. Oh well, life is not meant to be easy - or at least that is what I was told many decades ago.

I thought that, (based on various films I’ve seen), all marine engineers were sweat, oil and grease encrusted and wore singlets that showed off their rippling torsos and muscular arms to great effect (and, apparently, being Scottish was also a requirement...) The rugged, square, jaw seemed to have been optional So, NHN - are you Scottish and do you have one or more singlets in your wardrobe?

Mooring Awl , inner Temple Hare,. 5 hours sleep followed by a couple of uncomfortable not dozing. Ear problems are well known in Saudi, you spend time outside and everything melts and collects in the bottom of the ear, you go inside to air conditioned coolness, and it solidifies hard.. I found OTEX, https://www.amazon.co.uk/Otex-Express-Ear-Drops-10ml/dp/B001LK8BRW/ref=asc_df_B001LK8BRW/?tag=bingshoppinga-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=&hvpos=&hvnetw=o&hvrand=&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584413736749562&psc=1 to be a good dissolver of the problem. Forepaws were slightly warning of a change in the weather, and there was black clouds to the North and West, great fried Egg to the east, dampness and drizzle on the roads. Ben the cautious Collie peered out of the door and ascertained it wasn't raining, then happily came out for his normal patrol.. It's definitely a case of joints and muscles liking warmer weather, I really dislike the cold these days.. Looking at the forecast on the seaweed, tomorrow looks like laying concrete, Sunday boat work, Monday more shelving.. The New major system is doing the end of it's cross check at the moment, then it will be put on a stability run for the whole weekend. That's a loop continuously running all the tests that don't need manual intervention. It should get 7 or 8 runs in over the 3 days. Then we can analyze the results and see if there are any variations.. Meanwhile I have a bunch of current shunts to do today.. Time to... start warming the Lab..

Ey up! For some reason my body functions well in hot weather. I still like air con though.. Next door have gone quiet. Still can't see any objections on the planning site. Pah! Her indoors is off volunteering again today so I am free to do what I want but must mow the grass, sort out a couple of items in the garage, revisit the match regulations for tomorrow and take some photos of Gabe's items for sale. Other than that .. time is mine. Hope you all stay safe and well! Baz

Low angle view of Railadventure's Taurus crossing Bregenbach viaduct with a train headed towards Donaueschingen. Seen on my German N-gauge train set "Bregenbach im Schwarzwald" Les